Falling Through the Roof
by Dragonist
Summary: Sakura's greatest tragedy is still the size of her forehead, but this time it's the young blond boy who comes to her rescue and helps her learn to live with it. A Team 7 story where there aren't any fangirls or fanboys, but just friends, trying to become the best ninja they can be in a world where their glass ceiling is just begging to be broken.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey billboard brow!" Ami, the tallest girl in Sakura's academy class, sneered. "What's with the hideous bangs?" She laughed at the sniveling pink haired girl, and her two friends who stood on either side of Sakura laughed with her. "Trying to disguise your huge forehead with something even uglier than it is?"

The six year old Sakura bit her lip, glancing up from the ground as she attempted to look her bully in the eye. "My momma said," she said in a voice that was little more than a whisper, "my momma said that I have a beautiful-"

"-ly ugly forehead?" Ami sneered, reaching out to push the smaller girl down into the grass. "Cuz if that's what she said, then she's right, alright. You have the largest, ugliest forehead I've ever seen in my whole life!"

Sakura tried not to cry as she looked around the playground. The four girls were alone in the corner of the park. She saw the blonde haired girl who had distracted Ami away from her yesterday, but she was all the way over on the other side of the swings, playing with two boys. Sakura didn't even know her well enough to remember her name, so she couldn't call her over to help, and Ami was already standing over her again, laughing as Sakura tried to scoot away.

"Hey!" Ami froze, and Sakura took the opportunity to scramble up to her feet. A rather small looking blond boy had popped up on the other side of Ami. "Leave her alone!"

Sakura watched, a little confused, as Ami and her friends seemed to shrink back from the boy. She didn't understand. He was smaller than Ami's smallest friend, and there were three of them to his one. Why would Ami have startled away?

"Why?" Ami finally said, but she sounded a little less overconfident. "What are you going to do?"

Sakura watched as the blond boy hesitated. He stood a few feet away from Ami, who was now a couple feet to Sakura's left. "I won't let you be mean to her!" he determinedly, and then bit his lip before stepping towards them. Ami froze for a minute before she shook it off and laughed, but Sakura could tell she was a little more nervous.

"A-ami," One of Ami's friends tugged at her arm. "Come on. Let's go play somewhere else."

The other girl nodded quickly, eyes fixed on the blond boy as she grabbed onto Ami's other arm. "My momma told me to stay away from him," she whispered, but Sakura could still hear her, and from the way she saw the blond boy flinch, she suspected he could too.

Ami looked down at her friends, then over at the still glaring boy, and then over at the academy. "Whatever," she sighed, casting one last glare at Sakura before she allowed her friends to tug her away. "Later, forehead."

Sakura eeped as Ami gave her one last pushing shove as the three girls stalked away. The blond boy was still standing in front of her, his expression still sort of hurt and lonely looking. Sakura bit her lip, glanced down at her feet, and then looked up to talk to the vicinity of his chest. "Thank you for saving me," she whispered, ducking her head down so her bangs fell over her eyes. When she didn't hear him say anything, she looked up a bit, peeking through her pink hair. The blond boy was still staring at her, but this time he had a confused, almost shocked look on his face.

"Oh!" he finally said, after he noticed her still looking at him. "Um, no problem! Bullies are no match for the great Uzumaki Naruto! There's no way I could just sit back and let them be mean to a pretty girl like you!" What? Sakura stared at him with wide green eyes as he beamed at her. Coming back to herself, she blushed before she quickly glanced back down at her feet.

"I'm not pretty," Sakura told the grass quietly. " I have weird pink hair and a huge, ugly forehead."

"Hey!" Sakura shrunk into herself at the loud sound, still looking down at the ground. Two little tan hands darted out to grab a hold of her cheeks, and Sakura sniffled as the blond boy jerked her head up to face him. He was much closer to her now, and his blue eyes blazed with determination. "Didn't I just tell you I can't let people be mean to pretty girls!" Sakura blinked as he gently shook her head up and down. "Yes I did! And that means you too!"

"W-what?" Sakura stuttered. Her fingers fiddled with the material of her dress. She didn't know what was going on.

"Your pink hair is awesome and I've never seen anyone else with hair anything like it! And your forehead is the perfect size cuz you're all smart and stuff, I've seen you in class, and your eyes are all green and amazing! They're just jealous cuz you're the prettiest girl in our class!" The blond boy had let go of her face to gesture wildly with his hands, but Sakura was too shocked by what he was saying to remember she was shy and look away.

"No I'm not!" Sakura crossed her arms and raised her voice above a whisper for the first time since she'd started attending the academy. "I'm weird looking and my forehead's huge and that's why everyone hates me!"

"No way!" The blond boy mimicked her and crossed his own arms, blue eyes set in a glare. "You're the prettiest girl I know!"

"Am not!" Sakura glared at him.

"Are too!" The blond boy glared back, and Sakura couldn't take it anymore. Who was this kid to come around and tell her that her forehead wasn't huge when she knew exactly how she looked!

"No I'm not! And you have whisker marks on your face anyway, so what would you know! Everyone is always picking on me for having such a large forehead, and it's not _fair_, and I want to be a ninja so bad but I'm terrible at running and fighting and everyone always beats me at everything and the only thing I'm good at is studying and writing and reading because I'm smart and that's why I have such a big, stupid forehead, but I don't wanna have a stupid huge forehead, I'd rather be bad at all the tests and stuff and have a normal sized forehead and be stronger and not the slowest runner in the whole class! And my mommy and daddy don't understand, they don't even want me to be a ninja, but I wanna be one so bad and I'm not even any good at it, I can't even stand up to Ami and her friends, and it's not fair!" Sakura screwed up her face, her big green eyes welling up with tears as she shouted out her frustrations at the slightly stunned looking blond.

"Um," the blond boy said hesitantly, looking over at her with big worried eyes like he thought she was going to cry. Sakura wrapped her arms tighter around herself and kept on glaring at him, even though tears were threatening to break loose from her watery eyes. "Please don't cry. I didn't want to make you cry."

"I'm not going to cry," Sakura lied, furiously swiping a hand across her wet eyes.

"Oh. Good. But even if you were, I'm still not going to apologize." The blond boy said determinedly, then nodded to himself. Sakura looked at him, shocked. "Cuz I'm not sorry for anything I said."

"What do you mean you're not sorry!" Sakura balled her little hands into fists, glaring at him with watery eyes.

"You're the prettiest girl I know, and I'm not going to apologize for saying so!" The blond boy said, staring straight at her, and once more Sakura was too surprised at his boldness to remember to flinch back. "The only thing I'm sorry about is that you don't realize how awesome you are, and I'm going to prove it to you! When I grow up, I'm going to be Hokage, and you can be my second in command!"

Sakura looked at the fiercely nodding blond boy, eyes wide. Him, be Hokage? The strongest ninja in all of Konoha? She hesitated, glancing around the playground, but the two of them were still pretty much alone in the secluded corner. She could see Ami and her two friends playing around in the sand pit, while the blonde girl who had been nice to her now looked to be yelling at one of her friends, who had laid down on the grass and was looking up at the sky. She looked back at the blond boy. He was small, maybe even shorter than she was, and he didn't even look like he'd be strong enough to be able to beat a regular civilian criminal, never mind strong enough to beat missing-nin or rescue princesses or save the Daimyo. But...

He had scared Ami away, and her two friends, even though they were bigger than him and had the tactical advantage of superior numbers on their side. And he thought she could be a ninja, could be second in command to the Hokage! No one had ever really thought she could be a ninja, they all just smiled and humored her like she was playing around, like this was when she had wanted to learn to bake and given up after burning her third cake, or when she'd wanted to learn how to ride horses and cried when she first sat on one and saw how far from the ground she was. But he believed in her. He even thought her forehead wasn't too big. And even though that obviously meant he was blind, or at least borderline retarded in terms of beauty or fashion sense, it was nice to have someone who wasn't her dad, who had to think she was perfect, think she was pretty and say so.

"Okay," Sakura finally said, wiping the last of her tears away as she stepped hesitantly toward the blond. "I'll do it."

The blond boy looked stunned for a moment, blue eyes wide and mouth gaping. "Wait, you mean it!" he shouted. "You really think I can be Hokage?"

Sakura looked him as critically as she could, and then nodded. "Uh huh." Then she glared at him. "But you better pay more attention in class, because there's no way I'm going to be second in command to a stupid Hokage."

"But class is boring!" The blond boy whined, crossing his arms. "And sensei is always mean to me, and I can't understand what he writes on the bored, and it's not like what he's teaching us is gonna help us be real ninja anyway."

Sakura frowned, screwing up her forehead. "What do you mean sensei is mean? He's perfectly nice!" He'd always smiled at her when she'd answered a question right. She liked it when people were happy she was smart.

"Not to me," the blond boy scowled, looking down at the ground as he scuffed his sandals on the grass. "He never looks at me, and when he does, it's like he's wishing I wasn't there to be looked at."

"Really?" Sakura chewed her lip nervously. Sensei was supposed to teach them how to be good ninja. Her mommy and daddy had told her to be good and to listen to him, because he was supposed to be responsible for her and all the other kids in the academy class. If he really thought the blond boy was someone to avoid, was it okay for her to be his second in command when he became Hokage?

No, Sakura realized, looking at the blond boy, who was still ranting on about how sensei didn't like him, but how that didn't matter, because he was going to become the Hokage anyway, and that she better believe it. Because sensei liked Ami and her friends too; he'd said that they showed good aggressive instincts when they had practiced sparring the other day. And if he liked them and didn't like the blond boy who saved her from them, that meant that sensei was a Bad Person. And if sensei was a Bad Person, then that meant she didn't have to listen to him, because bad people said bad things.

"Well, forget about sensei then," Sakura interrupted the still rambling boy. "Because you're a good person, and if he doesn't like you, that makes him a bad person, and we don't have to pay attention to him."

The blond blinked. "So I don't have to pay attention in class?" he asked hopefully.

Sakura shook her head, frowning thoughtfully. "No, it's still important to pay attention to what we're learning, just don't pay attention to him not liking you, because he's a bad person and bad people are stupid and worthless and have nothing good to say, like Ami." She nodded, confident in her logic.

"How come you think he's a bad person?" The blond boy asked, tilting his head like the cat who lived on the wall in her backyard sometimes did. Sakura liked cats. She wondered if he had one.

"Because he doesn't like you, and you're a good person," Sakura said, then at seeing his confused look, tried to explain further. "You're nice and you saved me from Ami, and he likes Ami and is mean to you, which means that he's stupid because you're way better than Ami, who's mean, and that he's a bad person for not liking you."

The blond boy frowned, glancing down at his feet. "So," he said, then wrapped his left arm around himself, "what about everyone else who doesn't like me? Are they bad people too?"

Sakura blinked. "I dunno. Who else doesn't like you?"

The blond boy frowned, then shrugged, than smiled an uneasy smile. Sakura didn't like the look in his eyes. His smile looked fake. "I dunno. Pretty much everybody, I guess. Except the Hokage, and the old man who works at the ramen stand."

Sakura hummed, looking doubtfully over at the blond boy. Except for the whisker marks, he looked pretty much like a normal boy, like everyone else in their class. And he was nicer than all of them too, because not even the blond girl had really stood up to Ami for her. No one else had even tried. How could everyone dislike him when he was the nicest person she knew? "What do they do to you?" she asked, thinking about her bullies. "Do they all hit you, or push you around or stuff?"

The blond boy shook his head fast and then slow. "No," he said, "they don't hit me. They just don't talk to me. Or look at me. And when they do, they say mean things, or if they don't say mean things, they say things they say nicely to other people, but meanly to me." He looked upset and then worried for a moment. "It's like they all like to play pretend that I don't exist, except then when they see me, they get disappointed and angry that I do."

Sakura bit her lip. Bad people were the ones who hurt you, who made you bleed and who the Uchiha tracked down and arrested. And not talking to someone, or just talking to them meanly, wasn't enough to get the Uchiha to come and arrest someone, but Ami and the other girls had made her cry and want to go home and hide under her bed more times than she could count, most of the time without any of them even having to push her around. Ami wasn't a bully, she wasn't a bad person, just because she'd pushed Sakura into the grass or made her bleed that one time last week, but because she said horrible things about her forehead and made Sakura want to cry. And Naruto didn't look like he cried a lot, but he looked really sad when he talked about the people who were mean to him, and if they were mean enough to make him have to fake being happy just when he thought about them, then they were probably at least almost as mean to him as Ami was to her.

"Yeah," Sakura decided, "if they're mean to you like that, they're probably bad people too, just not really bad people, otherwise the Uchiha would take them away."

The blond boy brightened, then frowned. "But the Uchiha look at me like they don't want me to exist too, sometimes."

"Huh. Well, then they're probably no good either," Sakura shook her head, then reached forward to grab a hold of the blond boy's hand. She looked earnestly into his blue eyes. "You're the nicest person I know. If they're mean to you, then they're just stupid, because you're going to be Hokage someday, and then you'll show them how nice you are."

The blond boy smiled almost shyly. "You better believe it!" Sakura smiled back, happy that she'd helped cheer her savior up. Then, hearing the bell that announced the end of the break, she glanced back at the academy.

"Come on," she said, tugging at his arm. "It's time to go back to class." But the blond boy wouldn't be moved. Sakura frowned, not wanting to be late.

Looking up at her hesitantly, the blond boy looked down at her hand. "I don't wanna go back."

Sakura stared at him, confused. "How come?" She liked class. She was good at it.

The blond boy sort of shrugged, then looked over at the academy building. The other children were slowly gravitating towards its door. "No one's ever been this nice to me before. What if someone says something to you and you don't like me anymore once we go back inside?"

Sakura frowned, then reached down to clasp her fingers around his. "I won't listen," she said. "You saved me from Ami, so you're my friend now. And you believe I'm going to be a great ninja someday, so I have to stick with you when you become Hokage so I can be your second in command," she explained to him, nervously shifting on her feet as she worried at how long they were taking. "So I don't care who says something, not if it's Ami or sensei or even my mommy or daddy," although she knew there was no way her parents would say anything, because she knew they couldn't be bad people like everyone else, but she wouldn't let the blond boy get away with doubting her ability to be a good friend, "you'll always be my favorite person, okay?"

The blond boy blinked furiously for a few seconds, then nodded. "Okay," he agreed with a choked voice. Sakura smiled happily.

"Alright then!" she said, pulling him towards the academy building. "I'm Haruno Sakura, and I trust you to take good care of me!"

The blond boy squeezed her hand tight, reaching up with is other one to wipe quickly across his face. "And I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage," Sakura watched him look over at her and smile a shaky smile that quickly strengthened, "and I trust you to take good care of me too!"

* * *

Sakura beamed happily up at her mother, ducking under another woman's arm to dart up and wrap herself around her legs. "Mommy!" she cried, white teeth flashing as her cheeks stretched so far they almost hurt.

"O-oh," Sakura heard her mother say, surprised, before she reached down to pat her on the head. "Did you have a good day today, sweetie?" Sakura beamed harder as she nodded, leaning even closer to rub her head against her mother's side.

"Uh huh!" Sakura hadn't just had a good day, she'd had the best day ever. She'd made her first real friend, and no matter how terrible sensei had seemed after she'd started paying attention to how he treated Naruto, it wasn't enough to get her down. She'd already crossed sensei off of the list of people she had to respect, and as her mother had always told her, people's words only mean as much you let them. She wasn't going to let a no good Bad Person she had no respect for ruin her day.

Sakura's mother smiled faintly. "That's good, I suppose." Sakura shook her head up and down as fast as she could, then stopped when it started making her dizzy. "There wasn't any sparring practice today, then?"

Sakura shook her head. "Nope, there was, but my new friend partnered up with me and he was nice so it was okay!" Naruto hadn't laughed or made fun of her when she couldn't keep up during the kata practice, and when it was actually time to fight, he'd treated her like a real opponent instead of a pathetic, delicate little thing most of the other kids had started treating her like after she hadn't been able to stop herself from crying when Kiba had almost broken her nose. She leaned around her mother's leg to grin and wave over at Naruto, who was sitting alone on a swing. He waved back.

"Oh." Sakura's mother said, like she wasn't quite sure what to make of that. "Did you make friends with that girl you were talking about the other day then? Ami, or something like that?"

Sakura sighed, mood finally starting to drop a little, as she rolled her eyes. "No, mommy. I told you, Ami's mean to me." Sakura drew in the dirt with the tip of her sandal. "She's the one who makes fun of my huge forehead."

Sakura's mother sighed sharply. "I told you there's nothing wrong with your forehead," she said, shaking her head. "You just need to be a little bit nicer and more agreeable and nobody would-"

"I know mommy, I know," Sakura interrupted her mother, not wanted to hear the whole lecture all over again. "My friend told me they're all just jealous, because I'm so smart and so pretty and because I'm going to be second in command, and they're all probably going to be academy students forever."

"Second in command?" Sakura's mother made a sound that wasn't a snort, because she had told her more than once that snorting wasn't ladylike. "Of what?"

Sakura frowned, feeling herself shrink down a little at her mother's tone. "Of the village, of course. He's going to become Hokage, and I'm going to be his second in command!"

"Oh, honestly," Sakura's mother said just under her breath, and Sakura wondered if she was supposed to pretend she hadn't heard her. "You still want to be a ninja, don't you, sweetheart."

Ignoring her mother's rather strained tone, Sakura smiled happily. "Yup! Me and Naruto are going to be the best ninja ever!" Sakura winced as the hand around hers tightened rather painfully.

"Naruto?" her mother asked, the last of the smile that she had plastered on her face when Sakura had ran up to her falling off. "Is that your friend's name?"

"Uh huh!" Sakura smiled at her mother's interest in her new friend. She knew her mom wasn't going to be like all the others, and pretend he didn't exist. "Yup! Naruto's my new best friend, see, look! You can still see him, he's the one sitting over on the swing over there." The mother and daughter had made their way through the crowd of parents and older siblings here to collect their young children and siblings, but a lone solitary figure could still be seen perched on the faintly moving swing.

"You're friends with him?" Sakura's mother asked, her voice flat.

"Yeah!" Sakura started to babble on about her day, happy her mom had asked. "He's the best! Today at break, I was playing over by the trees because I found a ladybug and I wanted to catch it but then it got away and I was looking for it, but then Ami and her two friends came over and pushed me down, and they were talking about my forehead, and then Naruto came over and-"

"I don't want to hear about what _he _did," Sakura's mother said, her voice only one step above a sneer. "What were you thinking! Sakura, don't you ever play with that boy again, do you hear me!"

What? "What?" Sakura almost stopped walking, but her mother's tight grip on her hand pulled her forward. What had her mother just said?

"Don't you play with that boy ever again, Sakura, you listen to me! I don't know where I went wrong, there must have been something, oh my goodness, what is wrong with you!" Sakura flinched, looking back down at her feet as her mother pulled her after her. "Ugh! If you would stop being so shy and just go out and be agreeable to people, you could be friends with that Ami girl like you wanted to, and then you wouldn't have that _boy_ hanging out around you."

"But mommy," Sakura tried to explain as she stumbled after her mother, "I don't want to be friends with Ami. Ami's mean. She makes fun of my forehead and she pushed me to the ground at break today and I got a grass stain on my dress. Naruto's the nice one, he-"

"Is someone you'll never talk to again, or so help me, I'll ground you for the rest of your life, understand? That boy is nothing but trouble, he's no good, you need to stay away from him." Sakura's mother pulled Sakura over to the side of the village road, placed her hands on her shoulders, and shook her hard. Sakura blinked back tears as she stared into her mother's eyes, the almost exact same shade of green as her own. "Do you understand?"

"Y-yes," Sakura choked out, wrapping her arms around herself as her mother released her and stepped back. "I understand." Sakura's mother looked down at her, face cold, before she softened and forced a smile.

"I'm sorry sweetie," she said, wrapping up her watery eyed daughter in her arms. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just that sometimes, adults know things children don't, because we're older and have more experience. I just want to keep you safe, sweetheart, even if it means making you unhappy. But you're such a smart little girl, I'm sure you'll cheer up in no time."

Sakura obediently took a hold of her mother's proffered hand, and trailed after her all the way home in silence. She was a smart child alright, and she understood. With a silent sigh, Sakura thought of her promise to Naruto and apologized for what she would have to do.

When the two Haruno women had reached and entered their house, Sakura motioned her mother down and wrapped her arms around her neck. "I'm sorry for upsetting you, mommy." she whispered against her mother's neck.

Her mother gave a happy sigh, and snuggled up into her. Sakura closed her eyes tight against the sense of guilt she still felt. "And I'm sorry for scaring you, sweetie. But I'm glad you understand. You won't hang out with that bad boy anymore, right?"

Sakura nodded, her pink hair tickling her mother's chin. She leaned back a little and stared soberly into her mother's eyes. "Don't worry mommy," Sakura smiled, wriggling up to press a kiss against her mother's cheek.

"I have to worry about you, darling. First you wanted to a be a _ninja_," Sakura's mother shuddered delicately, "and now wanting to be friends with with him? You have your whole life to make mistakes, sweetheart, there's no need to rush and make them all now."

"I know mommy," Sakura rolled her eyes, leaned up to kiss her mother's other cheek, smiled once more, and lied. "I'll never hang out with Naruto ever again."

Sakura's mother smiled. "Such a good daughter," she said with a shake of her head as she pushed Sakura away from her and stood up. "Now, go on a fix yourself a snack, mommy has to go back to work."

Sakura waved her mother off and then set towards the kitchen, the last remnants of her guilt fading away with every step closer she took to the strawberries (her favorite food!) waiting for her in the fridge. She wondered absentmindedly if she should feel a little more guilty for telling her mother something she knew she would never do, before she shrugged it off with a smile.

If her mom was going to be silly and insist on behaving like the Bad People, well then, Sakura would just have to indulge her and treat her in kind. If she was going to insist on saying terrible things that weren't true, Sakura was just going to have to ignore her. As her mom always said, people's words only meant as much as you let them, and if her mom was going to insist on saying words that meant nothing to her, Sakura would have to return the favor.

Humming happily to herself, Sakura sat down on one of the stools next to the counter, and began cutting the tops off of the strawberries, happy she was a smart enough little girl to figure out how to make life work for her.

* * *

The next day, Sakura arrived at the academy with a smile on her face. She waved her mother off cheerfully, and waited until she was out of sight to scout around for her friend. Ami had also gotten to the academy early that day, and while Sakura had waved off her mother, had made her way up to the pink haired girl with a sneer on her face.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Ami drawled, looming over Sakura, who instead of flinching, or looking down, or cowering like she usually did, was instead searching across the courtyard. Ami scowled. She wasn't used to being ignored. "Is little miss huge forehead searching for her rescuer? Well, don't hold your breath-"

"Oh, just be quiet," Sakura snapped, glaring up at Ami with a ferociousness that the usually shy girl didn't allow to show. "I don't have time to deal with you right now." And then, with one last glare, the former shirking violet shoved Ami out of her way and skipped over to the swing, where a blond boy sat with an increasingly hopeful look on his face.

"Hi Naruto!" Sakura chirped, squishing the blond to the side so she could squeeze onto the swing with him. "Good morning!"

Looking as if he didn't quite believe this was happening, Naruto hesitantly smiled back at her. "Hi Sakura. Um. Was your mom okay yesterday? She looked a little angry when she came to pick you up."

Sakura frowned a bit. She hadn't thought her mom had been any more angrier than she usually was when she had to deal with Sakura by herself. "Her? She's fine. She said I'm not allowed to talk to you anymore," and, seeing Naruto freeze at her words, she quickly rushed on, "not that I'm going to listen to her. She'll change her mind once she realizes how nice you really are."

"Oh," Naruto said, looking down to push the swing a little bit with his foot. "Um. Do you want me to talk to her, or something?" he asked with a reluctant voice.

Sakura thought about it for a second, than shook her head and used her own feet to push the swing off higher. "Nah, it's too soon for her. We'll just have to keep on being secret ninja friends when she's not looking!"

"You still wanna be friends with me?" Naruto turned to face her, blue eyes wide. Sakura laughed, swinging her legs higher.

"Of course I do! I told you already, didn't I? You're my favorite person in the whole wide world! Why wouldn't I want to be friends with you?" Naruto just shrugged, and continued staring at her with wide eyes.

"No reason," Naruto said, a smile sneaking up on his face as he glanced away from her. Sakura watched him swipe a hand across his eyes. "I am gonna be Hokage after all, it makes sense you'd want to hang out with me."

Sakura rolled her eyes and giggled. "You betcha," she said, then jumped off the swing with a smile as the morning bell rang. "Now come on, I don't wanna be late to class!" As soon as the blond cleared the swing, Sakura darted forward to grab his hand and pull him towards the crowd gathering at the door. "We have to study hard if we wanna be the best ninja of our generation!"

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her, blue eyes sparkling. "Whatever Sakura-sensei says!" he said teasingly, then beamed as she laughed.

"And don't you forget it, Hokage-sama!"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:

Alright! Chapter two is up. As usual, I don't own this, and if I did, I'd be too busy buying caviar and really good cheesecake to do anything like this.

Now, for all you lucky readers, I have two chances for you to earn bonus points, redeemable no where except maybe wherever whoever hands out good karma lives. First, is the plural of Japanese words like Hokage going to be Hokages or just Hokage, like how the plural of ninja is still just ninja? Also, pinkette. Is it close enough to a real word (brunette) that I can use it and still have people know I mean a pink haired girl? Because me and pronouns have a thing, and I love words like blond, brunette, and whatever a black haired person is called. Oh, extra bonus points! What is (if there is) the corresponding word like brunette, or blond, except for people with black hair? I always fear weird using raven haired instead, because that sounds like he's got a bunch of ravens sitting on top of his head, which, while awesome, is not quite the look I'm going for. Please tell me in a review! The raging grammar what-ever-is-the-politically-correct-noun inside of me demands answers!

* * *

"Oi! Sakura!" A smile quirking up her lips, the pink haired ninja-to-be turned around at the sound of her name to see her best friend jogging up to meet her. "Are you ready for the test? I studied so hard, I dreamed last night that my textbook came alive and ate all my ramen!"

Sakura laughed, reaching out in an attempt to smooth down Naruto's wild, windblown hair. His clothing – an orange jumpsuit he'd bought god knows where that she had long given up on trying to dispose of – was hopeless, but she still held out hope that one day, his hair could be tamed into respectability. "The textbook probably deserved all of it, after all the torturous acts you've put it through," she said, then rolled her eyes at Naruto's sheepish grin. "Anyway, I think I'll be alright. I didn't put off studying until the last moment, like some certain body, after all."

"Bah," Naruto stuck his tongue out at her as they approached the academy doors. "After all those days I spent hanging out in class with you when I could have been painting the Hokage's monument, or slipping laxatives into the coffee maker at the teacher's lounge, I figured I didn't need to study too much to at least scrape a pass on the stupid written test."

"Uh huh?" Sakura said teasingly, reaching out to flick his forehead as they scrambled through the crowd at the door to get seats next to each other. "And how goes your bunshin?" When Naruto merely closed his eyes and grinned, she let out a slight sound in shock. "That good?"

"Yup! I managed to make five before I fell asleep last night, with ze-ro of them dead looking!" Naruto said happily. "All of that lame tree walking thing of yours paid off!"

"Lame?" Sakura said, shaking her head with a smile as she dug through her bag. "Like your face is gonna be when I get to kick your ass if sparring is on the practical?" She placed a pencil on each of their desks.

Naruto scoffed. "Like I'd be stupid enough to go up against you with what you did last time, you sneaky little cheater. I'll just switch out with that bastard Sasuke, and you can pound him."

"Hey!" A pretty, pouting face equipped with big blue eyes and long blonde hair popped between the two talking academy students. "Sakura, I thought you said I could have Sasuke-kun! How come you want to have a turn pounding him now?"

Sakura did something halfway between choking and coughing as she turned to glare at Ino, who, if it weren't for the lack of whisker marks on her cheeks, could just as well have been Naruto in his Sexy disguise. "Don't be gross, Ino-pig."

Not for the first time, she thanked her lucky stars that she'd ended up Naruto's best friend, and not Ino's. You expected jokes like that from a twelve year old boy, but to see an otherwise innocent looking twelve year old girl joking around like that... On second thought, Sakura cast a wary look at the blonde. At least she hoped Ino was just joking. She'd had a long, uphill battle trying to convince Ino that she wanted no position in the ranks of the girl's fan club for the last Uchiha. "Sasuke's all yours. I wouldn't know what to do with that much angst anyway."

Naruto snickered at Ino's mock angry expression, and Sakura couldn't stop herself from smiling once again at the sight his infectious smile. Naruto had just as much of a right to be as angst ridden and overly emotional as the last Uchiha, and yet he still managed to be, for the most part, a bundle of sunshine and laughs.

"You better hurry if you want to sit next to him, Ino," Naruto said, jerking his head over towards the corner of the classroom where Sasuke usually sat. Ino looked at back at him, confused. None of the other boys in the class wanted to sit next to the broody Uchiha and have to deal with his fan girls, and as the leader of the pack, Ino had nothing to fear from them.

"How come?" Ino asked warily, by now far too used to the blond's usual antics to take any statement of his lightly. She was well reward for her cautiousness when the blond suddenly pushed himself out of his seat and dodged around the desks as he made his way over the Sasuke. "Hey! Stupid Naruto! Sakura, what are you sitting there laughing about, stop him!"

Sakura just turned around in her seat, still giggling, as a scowling Ino raced after Naruto, who had made it to the top of Sasuke's desk and started taunting him. "Naruto, you idiot!" Ino yelled at him as she struggled to squeeze past Chouji and Shikamaru, who were blocking the aisle. "Shikamaru, you lazy bum, get out of my way!" With a frustrated grunt, Ino finally managed to squeeze past the two boys, her outstretched arms flailing wildly and knocking into Naruto.

Who had been perched rather precariously on Sasuke's desk.

Who hadn't been expecting any outside forces to upset his balance.

Sakura stopped laughing, the slap of her hand hitting her mouth echoing throughout the suddenly silent room. Ino was standing stock still, glancing with horrified eyes first from her still outstretched hands, then to Naruto and Sasuke, as if she couldn't quite believe what she'd just done.

Unable to stand the situation any longer, Sakura lost the futile battle with her self control and burst out laughing, unable to breathe for the look on her best friend's face. "Naruto!" she cried out between giggles as her blond friend finally jerked himself away from the dark haired, horrified boy he'd crash landed into in such an interesting position. "Are you putting yourself in the running for pounding Sasuke then too?"

"What!" Naruto screeched, furiously rubbing the back of his hand across his mouth as he stared, horrified, over at her. "No! Gross! If I'm going to pound him, I'm going to pound him into the last inch of life, you bastard!" he said, turning to look behind him before he quickly paled and backpedaled away. Sakura just kept laughing, unsure of what he was more scared of – Ino, who looked ready to murder him for stealing what was probably the last Uchiha's first kiss, or Sasuke himself, who was touching his wet lips with the sort of horrified expression usually found on train wreck witnesses.

Or victims.

"Better be careful, Ino," Sakura choked out, her stomach starting to hurt from the hilarity of it all, "it looks like you might have some real competition!" She watched as Ino launched herself at Naruto with an incoherent shriek, both blonds scrambling over the desk tops in mad, frantic chase of cat and mouse.

"Sakura!" Naruto whined, taking a second to stare beseechingly at her as he ducked around and behind Shino, who in his typical fashion, refused to be allow himself to be perturbed by the situation. "Don't say something as cruel as that! If anyone is the perv in this situation, it's that bastard Sasuke! This is all his fault! He probably wanted to steal my first real kiss, that arrogant, broody pervert!" It was only at this accusation that the aforementioned bastard was shocked out of his stupor.

"What the hell do you mean, you loser! You're the one who k-kissed me!" Sakura, upon hearing the normally cool and taciturn Uchiha's stutter, could only laugh harder. "You're the one who molested me!"

"No way!" Naruto protested, abandoning Shino to Ino's rage and diving under the tables. He slid up next to Hinata, who took one glance down at him appearing between her legs and fainted in her seat. "I had my back to that crazy girl," he jerked his head over at Ino, who was practically foaming at the mouth as she tried to get to him, Chouji and Shikamaru once more inadvertently blocking her way. "And you're supposed to be the rookie of the year or some dumb thing, aren't you? So you should have been fast enough to move the hell out of my way when you saw she'd pushed me over!"

"Uh oh, Ino!" Sakura taunted the blonde between giggles, not sure who had the best expression – Ino, who looked ready to tear Shikamaru's ponytail off in her attempt to get to Naruto, Naruto himself, who was still compulsively rubbing at his lips, or Sasuke, who had turned as red as a tomato in embarrassment and anger. Or at least she hoped it was embarrassment and anger. Now would be a bad time to come out of the closet. Ino was so crazed with blood lust Sakura wasn't sure what she would be capable of if her idol rejected her in the most concrete way possible. "Now he's already complimenting him on his ninja skills! Next he'll be offering to go help him shine his kunai!"

The blonde let out another shriek of rage, jerked down on Shikamaru's ponytail, and launched herself off of his protesting head. "Naruto! I'm going to kill you!"

Naruto meeped as he saw the blonde tsunami headed towards him. He quickly decided discretion was the better part of valor and abandoned the fainted Hinata to pursue higher ground, which in this case was the ceiling. "Sakura! Stop saying terrible things about me!" he whined, then flattened his back against the ceiling as Ino gave a desperate lunge for him, painted fingernails passing half an inch away from his face. "Sakura!"

Before the giggling pinkette could calm herself down and go save Naruto from his horrible fate, someone slammed open the door to the classroom and did it for her. "Naruto!" Iruka shouted, half in anger and half in surprise at seeing his most troublesome student stuck to the ceiling, with Ino an incoherent, furious mess below him. "Get down from there! And Ino! Get to your seat!"

Naruto looked dubiously down at Ino, who was still snarling beneath him, before he used his chakra to propel him over to Sakura, where he felt it was safe enough to fall down and duck for cover. Sakura wrapped an arm around him as she tugged him into his seat, and flashed a glare at Ino when the blonde seemed to want to make another move towards them. She could have fun and laugh at Naruto, but there was no way she'd ever give him up to be drawn and quartered when he'd turned to her for safety. Especially not to Ino, who'd probably have the best time of her life pouring salt into his open wounds.

Iruka waited until Ino had grumpily settled back down in her seat before he cleared his throat and spoke again. "I'm sure there is some fabulous explanation for what just happened," Iruka said, then glared over at Sakura, who was usually the provider of said explanation. The pink haired girl simply smiled sweetly back, cheeks pink from laughter. "But we don't have time for anything like that. Mizuki-san will be here soon to help me administer the practical, so you have until then to complete this written exam." With a flick of his wrist, Iruka sent a test flying to land perfectly on each desk. The gennin exam had begun.

* * *

"Naruto!" Sakura waved her blond friend over, her own grin widening as she saw his. "How did it go? Zero out of a hundred?"

"Psh!" Naruto shook his head, both hands behind his back. "On three, alright?" Sakura nodded brightly, pink hair flying up. "One, two, three!"

The two friends raised their hands at the same time, a Konoha headband shining from each pair of fists. "Number 1 kunoichi of the year!" Sakura yelled, face splitting into an even bigger grin.

"Number four shinobi of the year!" Naruto shouted, his face even brighter than normal.

"What?" Sakura gasped, genuinely surprised. "No way!"

Naruto grinned, practically jumping up and down for how hard he was nodding his head. "Yup! I guess all that studying paid off! I'm right behind Shino, Kiba, and that bastard!" Naruto's eyes didn't even darken as he rubbed at his lips, too happy to let his traumatic morning ruin his day. Sakura couldn't stop herself from squealing and wrapping her arms around her blonde friend's neck.

"This is so great!" she exclaimed. "Let's go get ramen to celebrate!" At her proclamation, Naruto gave a cheer of his own.

"Alright! I'll meet you at Ichiraku's." Sakura gave her friend one last crushing hug before she leaned back to look him in the eyes, confused.

"Wait, meet me there? Do you have something to do first?" she asked, genuinely curious. She couldn't think of a reason why Naruto would ever want to put off ramen, especially not from their favorite stand.

Naruto shook his head, still beaming. "Nope! I don't, but you do! Mizuki-sensei asked for me to send you in after the test! I dunno why, though." Naruto shook his head, smile brightening. "Haha! You should have seen his face when I passed his stupid jutsu test! I don't think I've ever seen anyone so surprised in my life!"

Sakura shook her head fondly a she disentangled herself from their hug. "I told you spending time practicing your chakra control with me would pay off, no matter how boring it seemed. That'll be the last time you ever doubt me, won't it!"

Naruto laughed again, so happy at passing that he couldn't seem to contain himself. "Never, Sakura-sensei! Now, get going! The sooner you're done with Mizuki, the sooner I can eat ramen!"

Sakura waved him with one last admonition. "Don't start without me, okay? Last time you'd had ten bowls before I even showed up!" She shook her head at his quickly fading shout promising he would wait for her. Smiling, she pushed the academy door open and began her walk down the halls.

She found Mizuki in the same room the jutsu test had been administered, although this time there was only the silver haired man present. "Mizuki-sensei?" Sakura asked, as the older man stayed faced away from her. At his hand motion, she shut the door behind her and took a few steps closer to the academy teacher. "Naruto said you wanted to see me?"

Giving out a sigh, Mizuki turned around to look at her, a strange look on his face that Sakura couldn't quite classify. "Oh, Sakura. That's right. You're such a good student, I hope you won't mind."

Sakura blinked. "Mind what?" she asked hesitantly, wondering if the teacher had finally cracked under the pressure. With all the antics she and Naruto had gotten up to, not to mention Kiba, when he could be goaded into helping them out, she didn't doubt that Mizuki had to be looking forward to their graduation, if not his retirement.

Mizuki smiled, lips stretching wide but his oddly glinting eyes unmoving. "Due to some unforeseen complications, there has been an issue with Naruto's ability to graduate, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to give him an extra test."

"An extra test?" Sakura parroted, then relaxed a bit. "Oh. Then why do you need my help? Naruto's waiting for me at Ichiraku's for ramen, but I can go and fetch him if you need to go over his jutsu again."

"He's waiting for you at Ichiraku's?" Mizuki asked, smile twisting in to a sort of smirk. "Oh, how fortuitous. Well then, Sakura, you're only really needed for a minor part in this exam, hardly anything too difficult for the top kunoichi of the year to do."

Beaming a bit at the praise, Sakura let the last of her guard down. "Okay, Mizuki-sensei!" she chirped. "What do I need to do?"

"Hardly nothing at all," Mizuki said while he fiddled with his hands. Sakura didn't see what he was doing, however, she was far too busy staring into his captivating eyes. "For right now, all I need you to do is_ sleep_." And, like the good student she was, Sakura found herself staring at Mizuki-sensei's captivating eyes as feathers danced across her field of vision and she slowly.

Fell.

Asleep.

* * *

"_-scroll!"_

What? Sakura opened her eyes and stretched – or at least, she tried to. No matter how hard she tried, how hard she screamed at her muscles to move, muscles, move, nothing happened.

"_Don't you-"_

Her head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton balls, but painfully so. Her temples were throbbing, and she would gladly cut off her own hand if she could just use the other one to reach up and rub at her aching forehead.

"_-ous person!"_

But she couldn't move. She couldn't move her hand, or twitch her fingers, or even just open her eyes. The only thing she could feel was pins and needles. It felt like her whole body had fallen asleep.

"_Someone li-"_

But she wasn't worried. She didn't feel scared, or anxious, or even apprehensive. The only thing she really felt was tired. Maybe she should just give up and go back to sleep. Sleep sounded nice.

"_Naruto!"_

Wait... Naruto? Sakura, who had just about been ready to give in and let the siren call of sweet, blissful sleep to take her, struggled back to consciousness as the sound of her friend's name. She was supposed to have done something for him, or with him, she remembered vaguely.

"_hurt he-"_

Something about graduation. Or ramen. Maybe both? Feeling that something was wrong, Sakura struggled to wake up, her entire body screaming with pain as she used all of her energy to try and open her eyes.

"_-give you!"_

She would know that sound anywhere. That was Naruto's voice! Encourage by the reassuring sound of her best friend, Sakura resumed her struggle, pushing past the pain until, with a quiet flare of chakra, she felt something give a soft _pop. _Then, with great but not insurmountable difficulty, she opened her eyes.

"-know why everyone treats you so terribly?" A blurry man who looked like Mizuki-sensei was saying something to what looked like Naruto. Sakura's eyes widened as much as they could in her current state as she tried to focus on the bloodied body of her friend. His orange jumpsuit was ripped in several places, and a cut on one whiskered cheek was slowly dripping blood down his neck.

"What do you mean?" Naruto was saying, his normally brash tone oddly hesitant. Sakura struggled to sit up, or move anything besides her eyelids, but to no avail. She had to settle for just watching her bloodied friend as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"The Fourth didn't kill the Kyuubi that day!" What had to be Mizuki-sensei was saying, although Sakura wasn't sure how it could be so. Mizuki-sensei had always been, if not as nice as Iruka, one of the better people she knew; she counted him on the very short list of people that didn't treat Naruto like he had the plague.

"Liar!" Naruto shouted, one hand clenching into a bloody fist. "The Fourth is a hero! He saved all of us that day!" Naruto had always had a special sort of admiration for the fourth Hokage. Sakura wasn't sure if it was because of how similar the two looked, or if it was that the Fourth had died the same day that Naruto was born, but he had always revered the Fourth far above all of the other Hokage. Sakura liked the first Hokage better, she'd always been a fan of plants and trees, and the mokuton sounded so cool...

"-think?" At the sound of Mizuki's laughter, Sakura forced her eyes open, realizing that, in her distraction, she'd spaced out and almost fallen back asleep. "The Kyuubi couldn't be killed, it could only be contained. And that is why, twelve years ago, the Fourth saved the village and damned you to an existence worse than death!" Mizuki sneered, and despite having missed most of the conversation, Sakura had heard enough to know she was pissed. As weak as it was, her chakra flared with her anger, and Sakura found enough strength within her self to struggle to prop herself up against the tree behind her.

"The Fourth sealed the demon into the body of a newborn child, and that child was you!" Mizuki was practically cackling now, eyes bright with a vicious sense of pleasure at how Naruto was shaking harder with each word. "That is why everyone in the village hates you! Because you are the Kyuubi in human form!" The grandiose man thrust an arm out in a sweeping wave. "So, demon brat, why don't you pay back the village that hates you and just hand that scroll over to me now!"

Sakura watched, green eyes wide, as Naruto stared at Mizuki with an indescribable look on his face – some potent mixture of loneliness, betrayal, shock, and dawning realization. "So that's," he said, voice wavering, "why everyone's always looking at me like they wish I would just die? Because the f-fourth," Naruto's voice broke on that word, overflowing with such emotion that Sakura felt her heart twinge in sympathy, "sealed the Kyuubi inside of me?"

"That's right!" Mizuki cheered mockingly, the deranged sense of satisfaction he was taking in the situation present in his tone. Sakura could only watch, memories flashing through the background of her mind, as Naruto bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. The way the villagers would sneer at them if they walked down the streets together, how Sakura always had to be the one to go up to a stand to buy them snacks if they wanted to get mochi or dango, how, besides Iruka-sensei and Mizuki, no other teacher at the academy had ever had the patience to deal with Naruto without snapping, and how, as Mizuki had to, for obvious reasons, now be crossed off the list of people who liked Naruto, and thus people Sakura felt okay liking back, Sakura could count on one hand the number of adults who ever looked at Naruto's way with any hint of kindness on their face.

"Then, that's why everyone hates me?" Naruto's fist clenched sporadically, and Sakura watched in a horrified silence as drops of blood welled up between his fingers. "Because I'm the Kyuubi?"

Mizuki clapped his hands. "That's right! So why don't you just toss that scroll my way, and-"

Drawing upon a well of strength Sakura didn't know she had, Sakura pushed herself all the way up onto her knees. "Don't listen to him, Naruto!" she said, stumbling over her heavy tongue.

Naruto's head snapped around so fast she was worried he might have broken his neck. "Sakura!" he exclaimed, worry and concern threading through his voice. "Are you okay!" But before he could move over to her, Sakura winced as Mizuki got in the way.

"No, no, no." Mizuki muttered as he absentmindedly pressed what felt like a particularly sharp kunai against her neck. "This won't do at all! What are you doing awake!"

Sakura froze, too afraid to even remember to breathe as a warm trickle of blood trailed down into the hollow of her neck. Mizuki-sensei was holding a kunai against her neck. _Mizuki-sensei_ was holding a _kunai _against _her neck. _Without quite knowing the reason why, Sakura's eyes, the only part of her capable of moving, trailed over to the side where Naruto-

Was _snarling_. Sakura felt her green eyes going wide even as Naruto's bright blue ones bled into red. The air around him seemed to grow thick and heavy, and she could have sworn she saw the faintest wisps of something red and orange and hungry stretch menacingly out around him. "You want the scroll, Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto _growled_, his voice rougher than she'd ever heard it. And then, with a movement so fast she could hardly tell what he'd done, there were suddenly tens, maybe even hundreds, of bloody, orange jumpsuit wearing Naruto's filling up the clearing, and unlike with the bunshin she'd practiced with him before, each clone made a snapping sound as they settled down on the dried leaves and branches covering the forest's floor.

Sakura breathed out sharply, not noticing how the blade pressed deeper into her throat as she did so. These clones weren't illusions, they were _real_.

"Then go ahead and have it!" Naruto screamed, then charged. Mizuki tossed her to the floor with a muffled curse as he jumped up and away through the trees. Sakura coughed deeply, filling her lungs with much needed air even as one hand went to grasp at her throat in an attempt to stem the flow of blood.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried out, and suddenly he was right in front of her, using the term of endearment he saved for their birthdays, or when he was really happy, or, apparently, scared. Even as he rolled her over so he could stare worriedly at her injury, she saw the faint red cloud surrounding him lighten and dissipate. Sakura could feel his hands shaking as he tugged her own away to look at her throat. "Don't worry," he said, wincing. "I'm kicking Mizuki-sensei's ass."

Sakura resisted the impulse to cough, knowing it would only make her throat burn that much more. "Mizuki!" she snapped as hard as she could, hating the hesitant look the treasonous teacher's words had put on his face. "Don't call him sensei. He doesn't deserve it."

Naruto flinched, his eyes brightening to a startling, electric blue. "Sakura-chan?" He looked like a kicked puppy – or rather, a puppy that had been kicked recently, and was worried it was going to be kicked again. Sakura's chest ached. She shook the last of her fatigue off and pushed herself forward, wrapping her arms around his stupid, ugly jumpsuit and squeezing tight.

"I was so worried for you!" she choked out, trying to keep her voice from trembling. "What were you doing, stupid! Stop trying to take down enemy nin when I'm too busy sleeping to help you!"

"What do you mean!" Naruto squawked, but obediently wrapped his own arms around her trembling self. "I was trying to protect you!"

Sakura sniffled, trying not to cry. "What good's that going to do me when that means there's no one to watch your back! He was a chunin, Naruto! He could have killed you and then I wouldn't have a best friend anymore and who would I eat ramen and torture Ino with!"

"Hey, boss!" Sakura flinched, before looking up to confirm that the Naruto's voice wasn't coming from the shivering boy she was still latched on to. A group of clones had made it back to where the two gennin huddled, an unconscious body slung between them. "Where do you want this bastard?" One of the clones said, a cocky smile on its face.

Naruto sniffed, rubbed a hand roughly across his runny nose, and looked over at the knocked out Mizuki. "Uh..." he said, then looked over to Sakura for guidance.

Predictably, that was when Iruka-sensei burst onto the scene, brown eyes lit with furious anger. "Naruto! The entire village is an an uproar! The Hokage is furious! What do you think you're," his voice lowering as he took in the situation, the usually mild mannered academy teacher slowed down his rant, "doing?"

Sakura looked from the unconscious Mizuki, to the bloody Naruto, to the giant scroll he had on his back, and then finally back to Iruka-sensei. "I," she said, tone as mock calm as she could make it, "can explain."

And then, for the second time that day, she promptly passed out.


End file.
